Thursday, April 13, 2017

'No trespassing'

25 comments:

Anonymous
said...

True story I heard from an inside source, native groups across the state are having secret meetings for something 'big' this summer. I can't say what it is but its going to change the whole game, this advert is the first step.

"In 1943, Alutiiq people from the village of Karluk became owners of a portion of the Shelikof Strait...That year, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes created the Karluk Reservation, granting Karluk Natives ownership of a 35,000 acre reservation and the liquid real estate that abutted the reservation’s 15 miles of coast line, out to 3000 feet into the Shelikof. Karluk villagers were thus granted control over the waters adjacent to very productive fishing grounds.

Karluk villagers were granted these fishing grounds because it was from this resource that they derived their livelihood."

11:29. That could literally be said about every race of people who ever existed anywhere on the planet. Just because it happened here more recently doesn't make a difference. I know first hand how it is to break into the fisheries as a young man.... When's the last time you saw food stamps and welfare help someone get ahead, never. We need to stop making distinctions like this. It only breeds racism hatred and animosity. In the end it usually just hurts the people it is trying to help.

11:29 If conquest is just part of history, I guess you won't feel so bad when your assets are taken? I'm sure you'll be the first to cry foul when things aren't going your way.

You are totally off base, its not about welfare or food stamps its about giving people freedom to live their traditional way of life. Native people should not fall under the overbearing hand of state and federal regulations. Leave that life to your kind.

If one does not want to fall under the hand of another, then one should get off the other's tit.

This entire mess of racial division must stop for everyone's best interests. Integration is the only healthy answer. United we stand, divided we fall. No such thing as a person being born superior to another, that comes from conditional training. These unfounded racial superiority rights do not belong in any healthy society. As long as we continue to ignore this absolute true core of the problems, none of the lesser issues will be truly resolved. They become mired deeper in festering wounds of twisted policy, regulation, and law.

When my grandfather arrived in kodiak at the turn of the 21st century he learned the ways of the precious native peoples, without these skills the white settlers never would have made through the difficult winters.

It's not that hard to figure out if you read the news release. Every Native reservation except Annette Island was revoked under ANCSA. So there is no longer a Karluk Reservation. Therefore, the village cannot legally claim exclusive fishing rights to those waters of the Shelikof they describe in their advertisement.

No one is saying the residents of Karluk cannot fish in front of the village and live a traditional lifestyle. They are welcome to do so, and hopefully they do. But does a traditional lifestyle include commercial fishing? The Karluk River has an amazing run of sockeye, pink, and silver salmon that provides both food security and economic opportunity for residents of Karluk village. But, the village cannot claim exclusivity to the resource per the Alaska State Constitution.

ANCSA did not relinquish the rights of aboriginal entities the right to barter or trade the resources available adjacent to their communities. It did address exclusive rights but it did not restrict access and harvests necessary to accommodate sufficient means to sustain the community. Meaning, conservation is still the mandate of the State and preference to maintain resources in a sustainable manner and in times of scarcity, the right to restrict access from non-residents. In ANCSA and ANILCA the discussion never resolved aboriginal access to the resources as being separate and apart from other State users, but there clearly is a right to an established (subsistence) priority. One question that has the means for standing in Federal court. All Alaskan navigable waterways are included and the discussion was not clearly concluded even though the issue was discussed. The State adopted limited entry and partially addressed the local established communities as part of a point system. The problem is that neither the State nor the Federal government has every come to terms of equitability for aboriginal integrity.

One question is: who''s paying for the ads in the Kodiak daily mirror describing the reservation and the 'commercial'fishing rights? And what is the goal? Will we see action taken by Karluk Natives and legal action against them and a resulting court case?

Some lawyer somewhere sees an advantage to publishing the ads. What's the next step?

There is a corresponding UAA SOA FED program called the Salmon Fellows that is now in play. They give $10,000 to each Fellow that they choose to be a part of this. They are centered around the concepts of native rights, more conservation and no resource development. I thought we were in a budget crunch? UAA continues to support frivolous programs and then cries that they can't take a reduction in their funding?

More nonsense. If the Karluk natives wanted to fish they have ample opportunity to buy into the fishery and far better access to financing than most of us have, there are virtually unlimited pools of money to fund you if you are Native. I think the object here is to take over the fishery, either install a couple fish traps (using Metlakatla model) or hire a couple seiners to catch the run (probably w/out state F&G oversite) sell the proceeds and send a check to the shareholders. Of course it is the way of these things that the tribal council members would get obscene salaries and kickbacks while villagers would benefit only slightly. The Westside seine and gillnet fisheries would be destroyed but what's a little collateral damage compared to free money!

8:18 brings up a good point: they have ample opportunity to buy into the fishery. And if they DON'T buy permits, no processor will buy their catch without a CFEC card.

The subsistence claim in a non-point. They can't subsist solely on king salmon. And when you have on regular occasion upwards of 1 million pink salmon and 750,000 red salmon past the weir every year, how can they claim they can't get their subsistence fish? The silver run is very strong too. Name another village anywhere with 30 people in it that has that kind of resource literally at their front door?

Clearly, the King run is depressed, but ALL king runs across the state are as well. Claiming exclusive Native fishing rights to the Karluk system won't fix that problem.

I don't think anyone here really understands what is going on. Pushing Native rights isn't really for the benefit of the Natives, its about creating an assets that can be controlled. Once fishing rights are commoditized it allows banking, private equity, consulting, and law firms all to get a piece. Their is an incredible amount of financial and political pressure to "fix" the fisheries. Fishing rights are one of the last business' to depend on hard work rather then capital. Take farming for example, nearly everything is now owned by corporations, private equity, or hedge funds.

I hate to see it happen to fishing, but it's the way the system is rigged. Who do you think will win a fund with billions of capital or a bunch of fisherman. Once it all shakes out you will just have a byzantine system of trusts with native names. The regulating agencies will sell you out as quick as possible. Don't believe me, Trident controls 50% of the GOA.

Trust me, I grew up fishing in OR but have worked in private equity for years, once they get a foot in the door your f*#ked. Fisherman will be working for a marginal lease and the new owners will have another revenue stream.

Section 4 (b) All aboriginal titles, if any, and claims of aboriginal title in Alaska based on use and occupancy, including submerged land underneath all water areas, both inland and offshore, and including any aboriginal hunting and fishing rights that may exist, are hereby extinguished.

That's a cut and paste right from ANCSA , I'm no lawyer or judge but I'd say Alaska Natives signed their fishing rights away in 1971. Except the Metlakatla reservation. And I'm not the only one who thinks that .

Bingo 5:54.Section 19 (a) (continued) . . . This section shall not apply to the Annette Island Reserve . . . and no person enrolled in the Metlakatla Indian Community of the Annette Island Reserve shall be eligible for benefits under this Act.This amounts to an exception to the previous exception. Annette Island Reserve was the only reservation not extinguished by the ANCSA. It is the only surviving reserve in Alaska today. The leadership and majority of residents of this primarily Tsimshian Indian community wanted no part of ANCSA. They wanted to keep their reserve intact, despite how appealing the cash benefits looked at first.

Section 19 (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or of this Act, any Village Corporation or corporations may elect within two years to acquire surface estates in any reserve set aside for the use or benefit of its stockholders or members prior to the date of enactment of this Act . . . This second option was most advantageous to villages that had large former reserves or reservations. Venetie, Arctic Village and Tetlin all chose their former reservation lands, which amounted to over one million acres of land. The villagers of Elim received title to their former reserve of over 330,000 acres of land. The villages of Gambell and Savoonga took title to their entire island of St. Lawrence, which is midway between Russia and Alaska.It should be emphasized that these villages received more land by choosing the second option, but they received none of the $962.5 million cash settlement. As a result, they face a continuing cash flow problem...

5:54 Keep fooling yourself. The United States has a long history of not honoring Native treaties. We live in a time period where ratifying a treaty or choosing to make exceptions is in the realm of possibility.